[SomersetBaggie]

There's a huge rumour on twitter it's a complete unknown,
A lad from Leicester City called Harvey Barnes has just started to follow WBA FC#

Who the heck is this,
It may be just a Rumor but he has followed WBA, Rumored just a loan aswell

If this is the case are we just selling people and not spending anything this year, just hope we are gathering these funds to make a couple of decent signings soon  

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Meanwhile down the road  

Wolves agree £5m fee for Moutinho: Wolves have agreed a £5m fee with Monaco for midfielder Joao Moutinho, Sky Sports News understands. https://t.co/VfypDNGpM0

Totally underwhemed.....according to the BM next signing is Harvey Barnes. Was on loan at Barnsley last year and has played 6 matches for Leicester (3 in the league).

Surely we can aim higher than this

[Slick_Footwork]

Barnes scored more for Barnsley last season, in 15 games, than McClean scored for us in his entire time here.

Also chipped in with a decent amount of assists too.

So while I'm not in favour of building a team of loanees, let's not get too worried. By the looks of his ratios to date, if he can maintain his Barnsley form the kid is good for 10 goals per season from midfield at Championship level. He's almost certainly going to be a better player than McClean as well.

From what I've read, he seems to work best as an attacking midfielder, and we need some youth in the centre along with Mozza, Brunt and Barry.

We're quite well stocked in wide positions anyway with Phillips, Burke, Chadli, Leko and Brunt who can all operate there. If the money saved by selling McClean went towards keeping Chadli/Phillips and strengthening in other areas, this could be quite a clever deal. Not holding my breath on that though, as expect Chadli (at least) will go. We live in hope.

[Beefy 1965]

Been chatting to some Leicester fans on twitter
Here's what they think of him ...

If he has the same impact with you as he did with MK Dons and Barnsley then arguably he's your player of the year. Barnsley were furious we recalled him and barely played him. If Grealish is worth £25m with 3 goals and 4 assists for a top 6 team then Barnes had double in 4 months,

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Yeah he's already good enough for the Championship. He's had a few sniffs with us in the PL but he's just so eager to make an impact that he's snatched at shots etc. Any other level though he's ripped it up. MK Don's, Barnsley and England U20's top scorer last summer.

[WBA-Josh]

Career performance stats - https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/harvey-b...ler/398065

Left wing and centre attacking midfield seem to be his two main positions.

[Blue Baggie]

I have no problem with a strategy of sell and replace with free transfers were possible.
The club just needs to be upfront with the fans, or WW3 will break out.
Looking for players that can perform well in the championship and step up into the PL is a fantastic plan.
But we need a blend, you cannot replace anyone/everyone worth good money with cheap/free players with prospects.
IMO that's called ASSET STRIPPING - Big Dave needs to make the fans aware of the constraints he's working under
or they will turn on him very quickly.

I haven't looked at the figures of the value of the players who have left vs the incoming players value.
I don't need to it's a massive difference.

Our youngsters who we were hoping would be given a chance are being pushed down the order with Harvey coming in
Edwards - Leko would have been hoping to operate on that LH side. A loan deal without an option to buy is a nonsense.

What the hell is Teranneo doing - not got a single player in - waste of time - free transfer for him would be fine.

I'm still backing Big Dave - sadly its all on a results basis - as it should be in reality.

[Beefy 1965]

Harvey Barnes due to sign tomorrow,
Thing that's niggling away at me is, we couldn't get a replacement in until McLean was sold,
So we sell for 5 million and bring this guy in on loan ???
I hope we are gathering the money in to buy one or two big signings, big as in big for the championship,
Still niggling away at me though !!

[Blue Baggie]

It looks more like Lai wants his money back ASAP assume he will be selling up following
the sale of the players who have a value. Jenkins said "We don't need to sell" its all lies.

I do hope i'm wrong

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I'm looking at the Seals now - thinking at least they had a go.
Yes they got into financial problems, but they have new money now.
I'm sure they will be investing in new quality players again - I'm not sure we will.

[drewks]

Don't panic Mr Mainwairing

[Slick_Footwork]

Phil Penn, what gives you the impression we are 'selling everyone and replacing them all for free' or Lai is 'asset stripping'?

I don't see any evidence to back up these statements.

Now, they might prove to be correct, but evidence so far this summer doesn't suggest that.

So far... Unless I've missed any massive sales, we have sold 3 players in Foster, McClean and Evans. We have also released 3 important players in Myhill, Yacob and McAuley. In the case of the latter, there's not a lot you can do as he is 38 and soon to turn 39.

Myhill has been replaced by Bond, like for like reserve keeper.

Foster and been replaced by Sam Johnstone, who I've been assured by Villa fans at work is a more than ample replacement. If press reports are to be believed, Foster was sold for circa £4m and Johnstone cost us £6m. Doesn't sound much like asset stripping, we could've picked up a goalkeeper on a free if this was the case.

Evans has been replaced by Kyle Bartley, who apparently cost circa £4m, which was more than Evans was sold for.

If the lad from Leciester does come in to replace McClean, this will actually be the first deal we have done so far where we've sold someone for cash and replaced them for nothing. However, quality wise, we're replacing McClean with a better player. Loans didn't seem to harm the dingles last season, or Fulham for that matter.

Lastly, I know that we also matched Cardiff's bid of £10m for Bobby Reid but the player chose to go to the Premier League. The fact we were in the mix suggests we harbour reasonable ambitions of going back up, I hope.

So while your statement might well prove correct - as there's still time for Chadli, Rondon, Rodriguez, Dawson, Hegazi etc to go and be replaced by nobody or free transfers - I simply don't see any evidence at all that suggests this. It seems you're either incredibly pessimistic or trolling. We have spent a large portion of what has come in.

[St Charles Owl]

I'm looking at the Seals now - thinking at least they had a go.
Yes they got into financial problems, but they have new money now.
I'm sure they will be investing in new quality players again - I'm not sure we will.

Phil, I think you are missing the point about how FFP works!!! Having wealthy owners will mean that Villa are able to pay the wage bill now but that won't help them with FFP. By all accounts Villa are at around a loss of 33m over the last two seasons and staring down the barrel of a projected 55m loss this season if nothing changes. Under FFP they can only sustain a loss of 6.5m over the coming season, so they have a near 50m hole to fill if they don't want to head directly into sanctions. They can certainly take a chunk out of that by letting expensive loans go as they have done and by selling a few players for profit, as they seem to be trying to do but new owners will not be able to inject any transfer money into the club because they simply cannot currently afford it if they intend to stay within FFP.

But under the new rules there is another kicker to all this. When Leicester, QPR and Bournemouth decided to spend through the roof and completely flout the FFP rules by "buying" promotion, the EFL changed the rules on the sanctions they can hand out to clubs to prevent this from happening. The new rules include a few key things that will prevent a club buying its way out of the division, firstly a club who is looking likely to go over the 39m threshold, as Villa and by the way Wednesday are, then those clubs need to submit a 2 year business plan showing what they intend to do to stay within the limits. If the EFL are not happy with this plan or lets say Villa put in a plan that is agreed as ok and then go out and splash 20m on a player, a move that will see them go over the limit, then the EFL now have the ability to simply not register the player and therefore he will be unable to play for that club even if they buy him. This prevents clubs saying one thing and then doing something completely different in terms of financing transfers. There are other more severe punishments beyond that but that one alone will prevent teams going out and blowing away a budget to gain promotion.

FFP is stupid in my view, if a club has a wealthy owner let him spend his money, but in its current state the EFL will shut clubs adding new players to their books if they do not take them seriously, and Villa are top of that table currently!!